An actual toilet in Seattle.
Posted on 11/03/2006 10:59:51 AM PST by llevrok
SEATTLE - It's broad daylight in the Seattle International District's Hing Hay Park. We're about to confront two men. We believe they're using one of Seattle's expensive, high-tech toilets as a crack house.
Earlier, our undercover camera caught one of them loading his crack pipe. And we watched a woman hand the other man a package. Then, the men disappeared inside the toilet.
When the doors open, I confront both men and ask them why they went inside the toilet together.
"Were you doing drugs?" I ask. They deny it but one of the men blows crack smoke in my face.
"Is that crack smoke coming out of your mouth?" I ask. "No," the man says "that's a cigarette."
Despite the man's denials I know it's crack smoke. My law enforcement sources tell me crack has a distinct, chemical odor. And, that's exactly what I smell. (Watch the video using the link above)
Unfortunately, these men are not alone.
"This is the kind of activity we see all the time," says Richard Chang. Chang owns a restaurant in the International District and says the Hing Hay toilet is nothing but trouble.
For weeks, our undercover cameras captured drug deal after drug deal in Hing Hay Park.
And people gathering inside the toilet, so many sometimes, it's hard for the doors to close.
We saw women duck inside, followed by men carrying cash. And, it happened again and again and again.
Park regulars who can't get in simply urinate outside.
"No tourist is going to go in there with that kind of scenario," says Chang, "because it's not clean."
Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr agrees. "I would never go in there," he said. "Because it does not look like a safe place that I'd like to be."
We showed Carr the results of our investigation. "From a public safety perspective, I'd like to seem them gone," he said.
Expensive Problem
Just two years ago, some city council members celebrated when the toilets hit the streets.
They were certain the five high-tech toilets, scattered from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill, would serve everyone from tourists to the homeless.
But the toilets came with a hefty price tag: more than $650,000 a year.
And a ten-year contract put taxpayers on the hook for more than $6.5 million.
"That place is, it's like meth central here, crack central, meth central, heroin central," said Randy Lewis, who owns a business across the street from the toilet on Capitol Hill.
Lewis says he saw problems almost from the start.
And outside the Pioneer Square toilet, our cameras caught drug deals.
Sandy Krause works for Seattle Public Utilities and runs the toilet program. "We're constantly looking at ways to make it better, to improve the service, to make it better, to make it safer," she said.
We showed her our undercover video. "I'm very concerned," she said. "I don't want that to go on".
Still Waiting
After we showed city officials what we found, they met and briefed Mayor Greg Nickels.
That was three months ago.
Richard Chang is says he's still waiting for results. "Because someone needs to take some action," he said. "We should shut it down. We should not be paying for this"
The countless drug deals we captured on camera didn't come as a big surprise to those in the area.
"Is there a drug problem in this park?" I ask one man. "Yeah," he says.
Seattle City Tom Carr wishes someone would pull the plug on the toilets.
But who will solve the problem?
Two years ago, the city council overturned then Mayor Paul Schell's veto and put the toilets on the street. Today, only three of those council members who voted for the toilets remain.
When the toilets debuted, Councilwoman Jan Drago was ecstatic. Now, she won't talk to us.
Neither will Richard Conlin, even though he chairs the committee that is in charge of the toilets.
Councilman Nick Licata was the only one of the three willing to look at what our investigation uncovered. "Well, this was not my vision" he said while watching our video.
"As long as we have them, we've got to try and keep them safe" said Mayor Greg Nickels.
Changes Coming
After we started investigating last summer, staffers briefed Mayor Nickels on what we found. What we caught on tape has now triggered change.
The city will install a surveillance camera outside at least one toilet. They're still deciding which one. And there will be new lighting for all of them.
Trespassing citations will be issued to those who loiter outside the toilets or violate the one person inside-at-a-time rule.
And the Mayor has taken the extraordinary step of asking the city council to reconsider the entire program.
"I hope that they will reconsider the wisdom of having these toilets in our city" says Nickels.
Can Councilman Nick Licata justify the continued expense of the toilets?
"I don't think we can justify keeping those toilets in those particular locations," he said.
They were flush with pride.
Only a crack head would of expected the crack heads to take care of it.
Democrats are failures while in charge of toilets too.
One solution: daily hydrant flushing ... maybe hourly ... autmoatically if there is 'suspicious behavior'
Count me among "the glad NOT to be a crack smoke expert".
Every city council member ought to be forced to go potty in one of these things on a daily basis.
Washingtonians east of the Cascades want to shove the northwestern tip of Washington state into Canada.
Refined a little : I-5 corridor 10 miles either side from Olympia through Bellingham goes to Canada.
We get Alberta in exchange.
That's about what my friend in Spokane says.
Seattle Refugee checking in, living the clean life in Fargo, ND. Y'all can just suck eggs and die out there (Freepers excluded, of course.)
An actual toilet in Seattle.
Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone then...not only would their toilet sentinel shifts maybe reduce the criminal use of these toilets...but, it would also keep these city council idiots preoccupied and unable to keep saddling the taxpayers with more of their harebrained ideas.
Believe me, these toilets are far from the only crap they have subjected our city to.
I often wonder if many street people are alcoholics and if so, perhaps they're suffering from Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. This is caused by years of consistent alcohol abuse and if they have it, and if they don't have anyone to take care of them or institutionalize them, then they hit the street. Then it really doesn't matter if there is a bathroom right next to them, they don't have the sense to even pull down their pants a lot of times.
Tell me about it. I live there!!
You could get a pretty hefty number of Porta-Potties serviced for $6,500,000.
And now more money after bad for security cameras and better lighting. What - so the folks at City Hall will have some funny movies to watch on their coffee breaks?
Our Mayor: ""As long as we have them, we've got to try and keep them safe" said Mayor Greg Nickels. "
Hell, mayor. Instead of building little-bitty crack houses all over the city, why not build one big one and send in the drug police. ooh, I'm sorry. That would be defined as discrimination and profiling.
Nothing wrong with Seattle that couldn't be cured by about 300,000 conservatives migrating here.
And people gathering inside the toilet, so many sometimes, it's hard for the doors to close.
It should be obvious that there are several problems here.
1. the toilets are too small and need to be remodeled to accommodate more people to keep the lines outside smaller
2. The toilets are encouraging the drug trade and should be relocted to safer areas in the city.
I suggest perhaps across the street from residences of the clowns who voted for them.
WA State Ping...JFK
I looked at the video. The friggin' police wouldn't look at the reporter's tapes??? What are the police afraid of?
What was really funny was the sign reminding people only 1 at a time. Yeah, right. The meth heads seem to be really paying attention.
I'm moving to the wilds of Iowa in about 8 weeks. I love the beauty of the pacific NW, but I'll be glad to be out of Seattle.
You don't have a clue as to what's going on.
Let me give you some insight. I could "stake out" a public toilet and hassle all these crack users. "Bust" them for more than one person inside (don't even think it's a city ordinance so enforcement is not an option). They migrate to an residential area which generates even more complaints. That's a winning solution.
Here is another scenario. I see two people go into the toilet, breaking the rule. I kick in the door of a toilet and find two people smoking crack. I get into a fight with one who doesn't want to go to jail. I get both into custody.
The non-resistant one get's released from the pct. with charges requested. The fighter gets booked for Investigation of VUCSA (felony drug possession) and Investigation of Assault (fighting with me).
Since, even though he/she hit me, I did not require a trip to the hospital and did not miss work, the prosecutor will not file felony assault charges. It will be reduced to misdemeanor assault.
The prosecutor then drops the drug felony because two persons were in the toilet and the defense will be "it was the other person's drugs"
Now I've done a complete felony packet worth of paperwork and a Use of Force packet(2 hours minimum), taken one clown to jail, after having to take him to Harborview Hospital for drug tox screening and possible treatment of injuries from the fight (let's be generous and say this only takes 4 hours).
I then have to deal with a pissed off command staff and city councilmembers. I broke an expensive toilet and someone is going to have to pay for it moneywise and political-wise.
I also leave the good citizens to wait hours for an officer to handle their 911 calls because me and another officer have been busy on this for 8 man hours.
And let's not forget the local ACLU gearing up to sue me and the city for civil rights violations. After all I broke in on someone going to the bathroom!!!
Yeah, I'd want that duty.
And no, I'm not too lazy to do my job. I do my job. My job is not to waste govt. money chasing after crimes that won't be prosecuted when other calls are holding.
That's life. But it's easier to say the cops don't care. I've had formal investigations into my actions for "handcuffing a suspect" so don't tell me the stuff I've listed can't happen.
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